Just for those who haven’t had enough, David Janes has one more post on evolution, and its falsifiability.
His focus is on the fundamental tenet that we are all descendants of a common ancestor, which implies that speciation has occured in the past, even if no one has actually seen it happen. (Hint to lawyer Orrin Judd–it’s called circumstantial evidence, which can often be much more powerful than eyewitness testimony…)
The Battle Of Midway, the first major American victory in the war against Japan after Pearl Harbor, and a crucial point at which momentum shifted in our favor, began sixty years ago today.
I’m listening to a debate right now on KPFK (90.7 FM in LA) between Rick Steiner (loony anti-lunar developer) and Ian Strock (The Moon Society) over lunar development.
[Update at 8:30 PDT]
The debate went about as expected. KPFK is a Pacifica station, fairly lefty, so it eventually degenerated into wailing about how evil corporations are, and they can’t be put in jail, so how can we trust them with our precious lunar heritage. Steiner said that he found the idea of advertising in space (and probably anywhere else) “distasteful.” I guess that means that we shouldn’t do it; apparently his aesthetic sense should prevent us from opening up the universe.
N.Z. Bear has developed a tool to categorize blogs by their linkage. What kind of animal are you?
Dave Kopel and Instantman have a sensible suggestion (one that I’ve made myself). It’s time, indeed past time, to withdraw from that other relic of the Cold War, the Outer Space Treaty.
[Update at 12:32 PM PDT]
Jim Bennett notes that there’s at least one other reason to get rid of the treaty that Glenn didn’t mention.
…the OST and its Liability Convention also raise the cost of space launch by assigning strict liability to all earth-to-space operations. This is no longer warranted for ordinary launch operations. Withdrawing from the OST should be accompanied by a new Liability Convention creating a more reasonable liability regime.
Yes. This could also affect the existing regulatory environment for spaceflight in the US, since the existing regulations are based on that strict liability.
Keith Cowing has a nice article up on the issues of growing food on Mars, given current knowledge, and longer-term implications for terraforming.
An emailer says:
I can’t understand why you take such a negative point of view on the solution of aerial acrobatics to disarm terrorists, which I had missed in the news. Please give it a little more thought, considering it in a little more detail.
It will simply require a plan to be developed in stages, as follows:
An emailer says:
I can’t understand why you take such a negative point of view on the solution of aerial acrobatics to disarm terrorists, which I had missed in the news. Please give it a little more thought, considering it in a little more detail.
It will simply require a plan to be developed in stages, as follows:
An emailer says:
I can’t understand why you take such a negative point of view on the solution of aerial acrobatics to disarm terrorists, which I had missed in the news. Please give it a little more thought, considering it in a little more detail.
It will simply require a plan to be developed in stages, as follows:
Posting will probably be light today–I’ve got a lot of stuff to do.
But there’s plenty to chew on in the evolution threads below–particularly in the comments sections, if you didn’t see them on the weekend.